Key Voices

Bill Donohue, Victim of ISIS

Bill Donohue, the perpetually outraged and red-faced leader of the Catholic League, has put up a billboard in Hollywood — to send a message to those Hollywood elites, of course — comparing criticism of Christians in America to the beheading of Christians by ISIS.

Gosh, if there was only some sort of institution with a history of forcing people to convert on pain of torture and death that could be compared to ISIS. Oh, I know — the Catholic Church!

I suppose I can understand what he is saying, if your arguments are so weak your only defense is to claim counter arguments are represion.

Sastra

This is the dying throes of religion losing its entitlement. Always good for a laugh.

One of the profound differences between beheading heretics and arguing against the deluded is that the former actually reinforces the importance of believing in God. “Your religion is wrong and mine is right” still plays the game of faith and belief. It grants power to religion.

Atheists saying “your religion is wrong” do so in order to diminish the importance of belief in belief by offering a rational alternative. It disempowers religion by forcing it into open public debate. This is a huge distinction.

It’s not just the violence level which is way out of whack.

Al Dente

I wish the Christians like Donohue would decide that either the US is a Christian country and us non-Christians should just suck it up or that Christians are a persecuted, oppressed majority just moments away from being marched off to the FEMA camps. Pick one position and stick with it, stop flip-flopping back and forth, using whichever situation best suits your specific arguments.

cptdoom

Nothing says “peaceful and joyous” like putting up a billboard to attack your fellow citizens.

hunter

People aren’t criticizing Christians — they’re criticizing Bill Donohue and his ilk. There’s a world of difference.

raven

It also ignores the fact that xian terrorism has been a problem in the USA for decades.

Seems like there is a xian terrorism attack every few weeks lately.

The last two were a month ago when an Oklahoma xian beheaded someone for “witchcraft”. A week ago a “Vigilante for Christendom” shot up Austin Texas and tried to burn down the Mexican consulate.

You can count on there being another one, sooner or later.

theguy

I’m surprised Shitahue didn’t blame Jewish people – as he did to explain away criticism of Mel Gibson.

Trebuchet

Fun fact: I used to confuse Bill Donohue with Bill O’Reilly. That was pretty silly, one’s a bloviating moron name Bill with an Irish last name, and the other is…oh, wait, I see.

Subtract Hominem, a product of Nauseam

Billboard:

NOT ALL CHRISTIAN HATERS ARE EQUAL

WE DEMAND EQUALITY FOR ALL HATERS

CHRISTIAN OR OTHERWISE

Alverant

Just replace the word “christian” with “homosexual” and let’s see how Donohue reacts.

caseloweraz

The first three lines of that billboard are oddly worded. They read like lines 2 and 3 refer to “christian haters”. But of course it’s wrong to focus on the actual words, rather than what is being said, amirite?

And what Donohue is saying is clear enough: “Don’t diss us, bro!”

I foresee a reply billboard with this message:

Christians:

Overseas they’re being beheaded.

At home, they’re just losing their heads.

forestdragon

Among the belongings of my late father I found an Official Military-Issue Boot Camp Crying Towel. Which of these morons should I send it to?

Actually, fuck them. I’ll keep it. Might need it if I have to see much more of this bullshit.

Ichthyic

People aren’t criticizing Christians — they’re criticizing Bill Donohue and his ilk. There’s a world of difference.

you’re right, there is a world of difference. authoritarian extremeists are getting criticized because they are outright dangerous.

But there’s more to it than that. People are also (rightly) criticizing christianity as a whole.

it’s just a bad idea whose time has passed.

Ichthyic

I used to confuse Bill Donohue with Bill O’Reilly.

just remember: only one of them is convinced the tides are magic and can’t be explained.

and oddly, it’s not Donoho.

anubisprime

The RCC must be mortally embarrassed by Donoshit’…

And if not they should be!

Phillip Hallam-Baker

If you take a look at the Wikipedia article on the Spanish Inquisition you will find that you are completely wrong. The church had nothing at all to do with the torture, that was the civil authorities. The church wasn’t even there. And the civil authorities were responsible for the burnings too which were all the fault of the criminals being executed for not converting.

And of course there is a clique of editors who will quickly erase any attempt to remove the obvious PoV peddling in the article just like there are cliques making sure nothing bad is said against any other religious group that still exists. You can say pretty much anything you like about Mayan human sacrifice (as long as it is supported by historical evidence).

But the thing is that the way Bill Donohue speaks makes it rather obvious that the only reason he isn’t out there chopping heads off is that he doesn’t have the opportunity. Its not just this billboard, he once told an opponent “You’re lucky I’m not like the Taliban, because you would lose more than your head.”

The problem with the Catholic League is that any organization that is founded to protect the rights of one religious group tends to end up appointing a bigoted leader attacking what he sees as the enemies of ‘his people’. Abe Foxman has done the same to the ADL turning an organization that was once at the forefront of the fight for civil liberties in the US into a platform for his ugly bigotry.

sigurd jorsalfar

Merry Fucking Christmas to you too, Bill.

birgerjohansson

Bill does not want to chop heads off. He wants a good old-fashioned burning for the heretics.

Crimson Clupeidae

The title of this post got my hopes up for an early holiday celebration.